2012 (2009)

2012 Synopsis

Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. 2012 is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors.

As we put a cap on the cinematic year, we wanted to go back and single out the duos who turned our heads with combustible on-screen chemistry. We admit to cheating in at least one selection, and we admit an over-reliance on the Hollywood “bromance.” But we think it’s a great list.

The following ten movies are the ones that have really stuck with me. They’re the ones that have gotten better with months or weeks of age and have separated themselves from the pack. Some of them will definitely be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and others will not even be considered. Some of them you’ll probably agree with, and some of them will probably make you laugh and doubt my credibility.

Looking back a year full of movies you have to remember the bad with the good. We can celebrate the best of the best and express our love and appreciation for them, but for the sake of balance it’s important to look back at the ones that we expected more from – the ones that didn’t deliver on expectations or hopes. These are the titles we see in theaters and leave saying, “Man, I wish that was better.”

This year, the industry’s top action directors choreographed breathless scenes in dingy Indonesian tenements, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in cramped European hotel rooms and beneath the streets of Gotham City. Here are the 10 Best Action Scenes from 2012.

This has been a big year for blockbuster films - a year that we've been waiting for a long time. Joss Whedon delivered his version of The Avengers ; Christopher Nolan completed his Dark Knight Trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises; Gary Ross kicked off the start of The Hunger Games franchise; Bill Condon ended Twilight; Peter Jackson went back to Middle-earth for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey...

Part of putting together our end of year coverage here at Cinema Blend is recognizing trends that have emerged in film over the past twelve months. And undoubtedly, the movies of 2012 were overflowing with massive moustaches, billowing beards and even some eye-catching eyebrows. So, we've picked some of the boldest facial hair statements for a very special top ten list.

While the system has its problems and flaws, YouTube is a pretty great thing. In addition to being an outlet that allows people to post all kinds of original content for all of the internet to see, it's also a great haven for movie trailers, a place where you can type in the name of your favorite movie and instantaneously get any of its preview. But of all the movies that were released in 2012, which feature's trailer received the most hits on YouTube?

Though the GIF is now 25 years old, the raw animation format is having a moment in 2012. This internet sensation has been the source of countless memes as well as a way to succinctly capture our favorite pulp culture moments, and express oh-so-many feelings. So what better way is there to look back on the year in movies—its blockbusters, bombs, and breakouts—than through this looping web essential?

Looking back on the movies of 2012 there's plenty to rave about, from powerful performances, to daring directors, and scintillating screenplays. This list pays a bit of tribute to all three, praising those lines of dialogue that are not only endlessly fun to quote, but also perfectly captured a key element of a feature's theme, character or story.

Creating this list has filled me with a dizzying amount of joy and dread. Really, 2012 was a year that offered so many examples of daring and thrilling cinema that it was difficult to even determine what the criteria should be for a list of my personal ten favorites. In the end, I went with my gut, selecting those films that not only hit me hard in the theater, but also lingered with me for days, weeks, or months afterwards, and which I can still vividly recall.

Hardy has steadily ascended up the ranks thanks to films like Inception and Warrior. And yes, he played Bane in Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. But his other two films from 2012 -- Lawless and This Means War -- were largely overlooked, so I’m a little shocked to see him leading the chart.

Nobody can see all of the movies that come out in a year; there's not even enough time to catch up with all the good ones. We've all had the experience of reading a critic's year-end Top 10 less and slapping our heads, remembering that we heard great things about that one movie but never caught it. Or if you live in a small town, you're constantly frustrated that the movies critics are going crazy for never play anywhere near you

Many consider 1982 to be one of the greatest years in movie history. With titles like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Thing, Poltergeist, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and many other influential, revolutionary, unforgettable movies, it’s a year that will always be remembered as a landmark in pop culture history. And now 30 years later we have a year that could very well end up being remembered the same way.

Many consider 1982 to be one of the greatest years in movie history. With titles like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Thing, Poltergeist, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and many other influential, revolutionary, unforgettable movies, it’s a year that will always be remembered as a landmark in pop culture history. And now 30 years later we have a year that could very well end up being remembered the same way.

It's hard to define a breakthrough-- like The Supreme Court famously said about indecency, you know it when you see it. It's not the same thing as a debut, to be sure; a breakthrough is what happens when somebody has been around for a while, maybe even moderately successful, but then suddenly goes supernova

2012 was a really, really hard year to sum up in list form, and a top 20 would really be more appropriate to reflect the astonishing variety of blockbusters, out-of-nowhere successes and totally tiny arthouse stuff that grabbed me this year. A lot of these movies snuck up on me, only revealing their brilliance long after I'd written a review or thought I'd forgotten about it. Plenty of those not on this list did the opposite, making an amazing first impression and fading so quickly

I woke up this morning with no idea of what Con was going to be, and now I have a better idea of what Con is going to be, but feel a little bad for being semi-attracted to an underage Pikachu (you'll see - why'd she have to make a cute face?)

Nothing helps get people into the holiday spirit like a movie about the end of the earth. Americans welcomed the chance to watch a CGI world crash and burn before their Thanksgiving dinners do the same, handing over a hefty $65 million

You’ve seen Roland Emmerich blow up the world before but, he’s never been quite this thorough. This time he’s blowing humanity up into even littler pieces than usual and odds are you’ll be suckered into buying a ticket

Ejiofor acknowledges that the good-guy scientist has a long history in the disaster movie genre, and says he immediately though of Jeff Goldblum's character from Independence Day when he read the script

What like about Roland Emmerich, aside from the over-the-top enjoyment his movies bring, is he's a frank, straightforward interview, happy to talk about his plans for Independence Day 2, his experience writing Day After Tomorrow when 9/11 happened

In a roundtable interview last week, Cusack said it was fun to have the chance to play the everyman turned hero, but maybe even more fun to drink near-beers with Woody Harrelson and marvel at how director Roland Emmerich pulled off the whole spectacle

Amanda Peet is really dying to do a romantic comedy with John Cusack. She's made three movies with him, starting with 2003's Identity and now 2012, but they always seem to be trying to avoid getting killed

As for why it's taken so long to get the sequel started, you can blame George W. Bush. "In Independence Day, it was about a king who leads his country into a fight against an outside invader. I didn't want to make that movie during the Bush years.

What happens when your movie is shot entirely in front of a green screen with everything except the actors to be added in later? You get bad acting. You get scenes like the ones you’ll see below in the nearly seven minutes

Roland Emmerich is willing to murder billions of people in his films, blow up the planet, and end life as we know it; but there’s one thing that stops him cold: Islam. Emmerich says that he’d originally planned to include a scene in his new disaster movie

Of course I don't really know that this is how the film ends-- it could all be a mid-third-act red herring to convince us the world has been saved, and then BOOM! Tidal wave. But I'm putting my bets on walking out of this two-and-a-half-hour monster with a happy ending

There are so many unbelievable things to see in the new trailer for 2012. John Cusack yells a line so cliché, it’s ridiculous (“When they tell you not to panic, you run!”), John Cusack drives through a falling building with his limo

If you were watching TV last night from 10:50 to 11:00 pm EDT/PDT, there’s a 90% chance you caught a two-minute clip of Roland Emmerich’s disaster flick 2012. The clip was part of one of the most extensive advertising endeavors

It’ll be hard to miss tomorrow night’s special broadcast of two minutes of the upcoming Roland Emmerich disaster film 2012. Through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Comcast, there will be a simultaneous roadblock from 10:45 to 11:00 p.m. EDT/PDT

Katey hasn’t had the best of luck with the WiFi here in Hall H over the past few days, so let’s see how this works for me as I attempt to Live Blog the Sony panel. If not, there’s always email, so the liveblog shall live on, somehow

Roland Emmerich’s next disaster movie, 2012, seems to exist in a future where everything just sort of falls over. The film’s first trailer is a marked improvement over the teaser, which showed a few monks drowning.

It's precisely what you would expect from a Roland Emmerich teaser poster. Don't you remember the teaser poster for Independence Day, which I continue to swear was hanging in the lobby of my local theater for two years before the movie actually came out? The same stark letters, black background, threat of doom